From home oven to Main Street, new bakery puts ‘Dessert First’

By Editor | January 6, 2026 |

SAMANTHA BAIRD STIRRING UP ingredients in mass, perfecting her homemade recipes that customers have grown to love at Dessert First in Tuscola. Photo by Nolan Morse.

By Nolan Morse

The journey of running Dessert First doesn’t just start in the back of the bakery’s kitchen in the early morning hours, it began more than 6 years ago where Samantha Baird started baking out of her home.

Thought up as nothing more than just a little side project for extra money during pandemic times, the journey started off small. While already working a full time job, Samantha would bake in her spare time, then travel all around Illinois to vendors and pop up locations selling her sweets anywhere she could. She was not alone, as her husband Jerrod Baird was there to support her from the beginning, standing by her side especially, when the times got rough.

The Bairds would continue this system, baking for business and selling at events until eventually they baked themselves out of their home. Samantha’s sweets had become too popular to where she couldn’t keep up with orders while baking at her house. At a crossroad of what to do, they gave themselves two choices, either stop the baking business entirely, or put all their chips on it, and all-in they went.

Seeing the historic building at 117 W. Sale St., Tuscola, in Jarrod’s home town, up for rent, they knew they couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. Acquiring the lease in April 2025, they had a long journey ahead of them, but they were determined to let nothing get in their way.

The nights were sleepless from the start but that didn’t slow down Tuscola’s newest bakery in the slightest. Months-long renovations were underway, the Bairds doing most of it themselves with help from family. After nine long months of crafting something they viewed as magical, they were ready to open it to the public.

Opening day was Dec. 6, 2025, and right off the bat people fell in love. Compliments on the cookies, cinnamon rolls, brownies, and mostly the decor, customers stated it feels like walking into a Disney movie. It was love at first sight for the customers walking in.

But the process to keep the treats rolling is no easy task. Monday-Wednesday, Samantha is behind an oven, mixing dough, and perfecting her craft starting at 5 a.m. Everything is homemade and from scratch with papers of all the recipes taped to fridges and cabinets proving a little method to the madness.

When everything is finally all prepared and they open their doors at 9 a.m on Thursday, Samantha gets to happily watch all her hard work pay off with satisfied customers.

Manning the front counter, Jarrod greets every passerby with a friendly smile, setting the tone to a wonderful, welcoming environment. Their collective mission is to provide the best possible experience to everyone who walks through their doors, whether that’s with friendly hospitality, delicious bakery items, or most often, a combination of both.

Juggling all that while taking care of their two young kids definitely added to the stress and chaos, but instead of letting it slow them down it simply made them stronger as a team.

Samantha and Jarrod run the business themselves, having no paid employees on staff. They stressed many times how grateful they have been from all the support and help they’ve received from family and friends.

One of their favorite parts of running their business is adding to the variety and value of Tuscola’s downtown. They happily serve the people, seeing many recognizable faces and providing their community with something quickly adored. One quote from the couple being, “We wanted to bake for the people of Tuscola and give them the best experience possible… and we hope we get to be the bright spot in someone’s day.”

Samantha and Jarrod don’t know what’s to come for their business, if maybe one day expansion is in their future or if they stay just a hometown bakery, but despite all the unknowns, all the struggles they’ve faced, they can gladly smile at their business and tell the world to eat Dessert First.